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“Fla. education board OKs race-based academic plan”

Funny. I suspect had John Derbyshire come up with an idea like this — one that has been approved, mind you — Rich Lowry would have hit the fainting couch with an audible gasp, and Jonah Goldberg would have rushed to tell us there really is no room for discussion of any kind.

And yet, the Florida education board seems to be institutionalizing some of the very data Derbyshire often relies upon:

The Florida Department of Education has touched of a firestorm over its strategic plan that will judge the achievement of public school students in part by race and ethnicity.

The plan, approved by the state Board of Education on Tuesday night, calls for 90% of Asian students to be at or above grade level in reading by 2018. It expects whites to be at 88%, Hispanics at 81% and blacks at 74%.

In math, the board expects 92% of Asian students to be scoring at or above grade level, whites at 86%, Hispanic students at 80% and black students at 74%.

[…]

Board members who supported the strategic plan argued that the numbers they are seeking in all categories would be an improvement over current levels, though statistically each racial group is not expected to improve at the same rate.

“I think we need to be realistic in our ability to impact those at the same degree,” said board member Kathleen Shanahan.

Cheryl Etters, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education, said the disparate numbers are not meant to lower expectations but rather set “realistic and attainable” goals, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

“Of course we want every student to be successful,” Etters said. “But we do have to take into account their starting point.”

“Realistic and attainable”? Why, I’d been led to believe even discussing such things in those terms was “unacceptable” — with anti-intellectualism and PC conformity the new sophisticate norm, particularly of late among the “us-too!” Republicans / “conservatives” who, while generally condemning the left’s constant charges of racism or hate or intolerance, nonetheless have conditioned themselves to preemptively prove themselves even more OUTRAGED at such potential breaches of PC orthodoxy than those who cynically and without cause (save for how effective the tactic is) level those charges in the first place.

When you’ve lost language you’ve lost the game. Or rather, you’ve surrendered it — all while patting yourself on the back for your good sportsmanship and adherence to the rules.

“We must have high standards,” everyone will gleefully say, though no one is comfortable examining the meaning of high — or low, for that matter. Best to stay the hell away from those evil Greeks — and don’t even think about looking to the Biblical Jews. Hey hey, ho ho, Western Civ has got to go.

My daughter is a senior in high school. She was adopted from China. She works her ass off and studies on average 4-5 hours a day after school and she has a GPA of about 3.6. I consider her an EXCELLENT student as do her teachers. To suggest “Asian” students to the exclusion of EVERYONE else must perform “A” caliber work to be considered proficient is just fuking nuts….

Any employee of mine, telling me that it’s “realistic and attainable” for him to achieve a 75-80% success rate, in a process that should see a 90-95% success rate, is not going to be an employee of mine for long.

They know what the problems are. They know what it will take to fix it. They’re just too fucking cowardly to say out loud what everybody knows is true. And what’s really twisted is that anyone who points out the dysfunction in our ‘communities of color’ is labeled a racist hater, while those who defend the dysfunction are lauded as heroes. Never mind that the long-term consequences of the latter are perpetual dysfunction and misery…

I don’t think public schools are redeemable. Any reform that addresses the dysfunctional families and substandard teachers at the heart of the issue is going to be burnt at the stake by the unions and the professional grievance industry. The only chance our kids have is if we succeed in opening a parallel education system. And even then, we’ll be fought every step of the way.

Here’s the thing. At the individual level race is pretty much cosmetic or even meaningless. A lot of people are going to be a mix of categories and classified in one or the other by the fiat interpretation of the first observer/recorder that makes the file entry on him or her.

If a “black” kid consistently scores higher than the black model predicts then have a talk with him and ask if he would mind if he were classed with the group model he most resembles.

In other words do diagnostics and group the kids by their actual demonstrated performance.

Low performing kids get more exposure, more assistance, or more discipline as required, no matter what color or race they get classified as.

Something I’d like to point out that seems very common and yet no one mentions it or considers it odd or that it might have ramifications relating to the state our schools are in; most educators and admins are female.

It’s a very female dominated profession. I’m not making accusations of any sort but it seems to me that anytime we hear about some cock up in some school, it’s usually been a female educator or female admin at the root of the controversy.

I’m not making a blanket indictment of women over this but perhaps a balance in our schools might be a good thing? Just like there should be more conservative thinking people also.

I’ll sit quietly now for my obligatory abuse because I’m such a neanderthal.

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